


I Swear to the Stars

by TheMourningMadam



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:20:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24361216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMourningMadam/pseuds/TheMourningMadam
Summary: With a War looming on the horizon, Hermione is faced with a difficult choice. As long as she doesn't look him in the eye or listen to his voice for too long, she can enact her Plan.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	I Swear to the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> This is an open-ended one shot. It can be viewed as unhappily ever after, or it can be viewed as hopeful and promising. You'll have to be the determiner of that.
> 
> "I have galaxies hidden between my bones, and I will love you until the stars burn out." -Unknown

o-o-o

Hermione lifted the hood of her traveling cloak to shield her face from the cool night air. She'd slipped out of the castle expertly after her prefects rounds, as she had done too many nights to count. In her pocket, she clutched a small scrap of parchment, the quote inscribed burnt into her mind: " _Neither a wise man, nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. D. D. Eisenhower."_

They'd been meeting in secret rendezvous for nearly the entirety of the school year thus far, each one writing in code as they selected a new location for their scandalous tête-à-têtes. Hermione hoped she was correct in her solving of his riddle as being wrong would only end in his ire. _Tonight is the night, Hermione. Don't lose your courage._ This mantra played in her head all through rounds and she was nearly screaming it internally now.

She crossed the lawns of Hogwarts swiftly, moving toward the tracks leading away from the grounds. They were creative in their meeting spots, never going to the same place twice. The tracks that carried the Hogwarts Express were the furthest locale they had chosen thus far and a slight thrill went through her at how far she was willing to go to push the boundaries set upon them.

Her feet pounded over the rickety boards of the platform, echoing into the still night. She heard the gentle lull of the water lapping against the docks where the enchanted boats were tethered. Lanterns lined the path, emitting a dull yellow glow that she stepped in and out of as she strode. When she stepped through to the other side of the platform, now under the open sky once more, she saw him waiting for her.

Bathed in the pale moonlight, his alabaster skin and cornsilk hair nearly luminesced from within. His back was to her and he stood in the middle of the tracks, staring up at the starry sky. "Could you be any louder, Granger? I'm certain you may have woken the dead," his voice held none of the bite it had in earlier years. Only a strained mirth and evident exhaustion.

Draco turned and gave Hermione a dazzling smile, bouncing twice on his feet as he shoved his hands into his pockets. She swallowed thickly, returning his gesture with a pouty simper of her own. She was really going to miss that look—a fiery, lust-filled, admiration that he saved for her, and her alone. As war loomed on the horizon, thoughts of that look were the only things that kept her going most days.

Underneath the hormone-driven countenance, Hermione could see that Draco was deteriorating. She knew he was facing a monumental task—one that she simply refused to accept and refused to allow him to go through with. Violet shadows ringed his eyes and his cheeks had grown sallow and gaunt, giving him a truly haunted appearance. She lifted one hand and cupped his jaw, her heart racing as he leaned into her touch.

"Well, you picked the furthest possible meeting point! I was trying to hurry."

His smile turned to a wolfish grin as he lifted his hands and wove them expertly into her curls, nestling them so that he could push and pull on a whim. Draco lowered his lips to hers in a slow, sensual kiss. His kisses were never rushed, never overly rough. He enjoyed tasting every inch of her, savoring the stolen moments together. Any other time, Hermione would have been perfectly happy to oblige him, but tonight she took the opportunity to _memorise_ him. She sought to revel in his taste and scent for far longer than the night.

Hermione needed a lifetime.

Draco smiled against her lips, pulling away only far enough to whisper, "Eager?"

She merely hummed in response, raking her fingernails over his scalp as she pulled him closer. His hand dipped into her cloak, warm and firm as it slid under her uniform shirt. Hyperaware of his every detail, she noted the way is fingertips danced over her bare back, splayed wide as he stepped into her, closing every possible inch between them.

Desperate for air, she pulled back and nuzzled her nose along his and brushed her lips lightly against the curve of his mouth. "Say it," she whispered her plea, needing to hear his reassurance one final time.

"I love you," he replied quietly, kissing the tip of her nose. "Now and forever, until the stars burn out."

To hear him murmur those words, the conviction in his deep timber, made her heart clench with remorse for the inevitable. She swore to herself that she would follow him down here and sever things swiftly, quickly. That was before he kissed her, before she felt his magic tingling through her veins pleasantly, before he said _those_ words. Prolonging fate, her hand moved to lace her fingers with his. "I love you, too."

The softening of his features when he heard this reassurance was something Hermione was certain she would never be able to forget. Draco brushed her curls away from her forehead and brought his lips to the space he'd cleared. His breaths were subtle and warm as they fell over her face, sending gooseflesh to rise over her entire body. "Walk with me, love," he implored gently, tugging her hand so that she was next to him.

They couldn't venture too far for fear of setting off the wards that enveloped the castle, so they moseyed slowly. Hermione climbed onto the metal track, her ankles wobbling as she fought to balance in her mary-janes. Draco laughed at her antics, lifting his hand to hold hers as she steadied herself. His feet crunched through the gravel between the tracks, effectively making the only noise between them.

Hermione gave him a sidelong glance and found him staring straight at the ground, a frown gracing his handsome features. Faced with the assassination of their headmaster, he was often preoccupied the day drew nearer. He'd refused to see reason, convinced that his mother's life depended on him taking another. That's when she'd come up with _The Plan._ Her stomach turned nastily as she went over the details of said plan for the millionth time in her head.

"I'll fight for you, you know?" Draco confessed, his sudden admission loud in the still night.

Hermione stopped trying to walk as though on a tightrope and stared down at him, an inch below her now. His normally silver eyes looked the color of rough seas as he gazed at her. She saw anguish in his features, persistent as he wrinkled his brow and his Adam's apple bobbed with a harsh swallow. "We're on opposing sides, Draco. Fighting for me will only get you killed."

He frowned and his eyes dropped away from hers, shamed. "I swear to the stars, Hermione, I'll burn this whole world to ash."

"Your parents—"

"Fuck what my parents say, Hermione," he snapped, running a hand through his hair. "I'm done being controlled and living in fear."

"Draco—"

"We _belong_ together! You know we do," he hissed, yanking her hand so that she stepped down from the track and landed against his chest. "You're _mine_. Fuck everything else—fuck this war, fuck the Dark Lord, fuck my bigoted parents. I need you, Hermione. _I need you._ "

Tears welled behind her eyes, burning as her throat began to ache with the force of holding back sobs. _Tonight is the night, Hermione. Don't lose your courage._ Her time with him was growing shorter, her absence in Gryffindor Tower sure to be noticed soon. Desperate for a few more minutes with him, she tucked her head beneath his chin.

This was an argument they had often, but she knew that he would never defect and go to the Order alone. His mother's safety was of utmost importance and he was already too far into Voldemort's grasp to back out now. "Draco," her voice was warning, and he wrapped his arms around her. "I don't want to fight about this. We both know it will only result in a frustrating impasse."

He sniffed stiffly, kissing the top of her head. Her heart pounded in her throat as she nestled into his embrace, memorizing his every angle, every touch, every sigh. "Tonight, let's just be Draco and Hermione. Two people in love," she implored, her voice muffled in his chest.

Smoothing her hair away from her face, he gave her a weak smile and she was again taken by how tormented he was. He took her hand and gestured toward the track for her to resume her balancing act.

Within the castle, her friends were tucked away into the four poster beds, sleeping or otherwise occupied. They had no idea where she was, with whom she had fallen so deeply in love. At seventeen, she'd thought she had the world all figured out. That is, until Draco Malfoy sauntered into her life one day during astronomy. The world she'd known had turned on its head, nothing making sense since. Except him. Being in his arms, a mess of tangled limbs and languid kisses, was the only thing that brought an ounce of belonging to her heart.

Because of the secretive nature of their relationship, she'd have no support going forward. No one to hold her up as she collapsed with grief. "Why are you so quiet tonight, love?" his voice broke her anguished reverie and she gave him a grim smile.

"I was just thinking about when I first fell in love with you," Hermione remarked and just a few meters away, the wards enclosing the castle shimmered.

"It was when your fist connected with my nose wasn't it?" he teased, switching hands so that she could walk along the track back the way they'd come.

She huffed a laugh and lifted her chin in false arrogance. "I think it was when I saw the smug look leave your eyes, only to be replaced with complete awe of me."

Draco let out a hearty laugh at the memory, his thumb running over her fingers. It was in that moment that Hermione looked down at him. For the first time in weeks, his smile was large and momentarily carefree. He looked like a boy in love with a girl, unencumbered by war and death. His eyes glittered up at her, mischief sparkling in the moonlight. Just as he opened his mouth to respond, Hermione pulled her wand from her cloak pocket and lifted it between his eyes.

" _Obliviate!"_ she whispered, her eyes burning with tears.

She tried to concentrate on The Plan—to first erase all memories of them together, and then replace them with a Memory Modifying charm. It was a struggle to maintain her courage as she watched the light leave his eyes. His smile fell just as she whispered the second incantation, desperate to keep images of the two of them from spilling forth from her own mind. She implanted a plan to approach Dumbledore, to ask for asylum from the Order for both he and his mother.

His face fell from adoration and love and a scowl spread across his lips. The sparkle in his eye dimmed and he looked around them, confusion clear. Hermione straightened her spine and lifted her wand to him once more. "Care to explain why what you're doing slinking around after hours, Malfoy?"

He glanced around them once more, shoving his hands in his pockets and he removed his wand. "Get fucked, Granger. You're precious little badge means nothing to me."

"I could turn you into Snape," she warned, to which he let out a haughty laugh and pushed past her.

"Your time is coming soon enough, Mudblood," he bit out without turning around to face her.

Knowing him intimately, as she now did, she knew that even though he spoke the words, it was a defense mechanism. The bite in his tone was false, rehearsed. It saddened her to hear him speak to her so, but she knew it was for the best that he remember nothing of them as he navigated through defying Voldemort and joining the Order.

He strode, a little of his feigned arrogance in his step though she could tell that he was still confounded as to his whereabouts. Hermione watched his retreating back, marveling for the last time at the way the moonlight caught his hair angelically. She watched as he dug a galleon from his pocket and turned it between his fingers, flicking it into the air as he approached the tunnel where the platform rest.

Hermione hoped that she had properly committed Draco to memory, for her memories of him were all she had for the time being. Memories and a hope that he wouldn't dawdle in joining the Order. She needed him now, as the cool air enveloped her like Death's embrace. Regret roared through her, and for a moment, she thought she might chase after him, take him in her arms and whisper the counter-charm. Utterly alone, Hermione collapsed into a heap on the railroad tracks, hugging her arms around her knees as she cried into her cloak.

He would come back to her. She knew this as certain as she felt the galaxies above shimmer between her bones and rattle her teeth. But the time in between would certainly destroy her.

o-o-o


End file.
